Act Two: Johto - PokeSoul Unite!
by MinawaKitten
Summary: Simon was once a very kind boy, when he turns sour for no explanation his two friends are determined to figure out what happened. A bothersome young man of red hair appears, going by the alias of Black, wishing to bring harm to Simon, proclaims Kairi as a rival and has a rather creepy eye on Nick. Meanwhile, a young lady named Gwen comes to Johto in search of something missing. AU.
1. Chapter 1

She could hear the chirps of Pidgeys from outside her window. She was normally awake before the bird pokemon began to chirp but her mother had let her sleep a little more in preparation of her pokemon journey. The blond looked over to the clock on her nightstand, informing her it was six o'clock. The young lady climbed out of bed, careful not to disturb the sleeping Miltank on the floor.

She opened a small rectangular box on the chest at the foot of her bed. Inside was a jean overall skirt decorated with black buttons, a red shirt with puffy sleeves and a white collar. Next to the box was a pair of white stockings and red and white sneakers. She collected the clothes and clean undergarments and made her way to the bathroom down the hall.

Several minutes later she left the bathroom, returning to her room to place her clothes in the hamper. She noted her Miltank wasn't in the room and neither was her bag. She pulled on her sneakers and made her way downstairs, it was there she found her Miltank eating it's breakfast and her bag placed at her usual spot at the table. She pat the pokemon on its head before taking her seat at the table. A young man with messy brown hair placed a plate of eggs and bacon before her with a smile.

"Mornin' shorty." he smiled, ruffling her blond hair. The thin freckled girl pouted.

"Don't be mean Terra!"

"Ah c'mon Kairi, lemme tease you for a little while! You'll be off, adventurin around Johto, with your best friends and ma and I will be without you for who knows how long!"

"It wont be forever Terra, just calm down!" the young lady sighed, diving into her food. He ruffled her hair.

"Take care," she nodded with a mouth full of food. With a warm smile the young man placed a bento on the table and left the house to take care of morning work. Kairi finished up her food and cleaned her dish by hand. She returned to the table to pack away her lunch. She found a note from her mother attached to it. She should of expected as much, it wasn't that her mom was terrible or neglectful, with her leaving on this journey her mother and brother had to take over her chores. She must of picked the harder, heavy duty job. At least she said a farewell last night in case of this happening.

"Come on Mittens, it's time to go." The Miltank mooed as she followed Kairi out the house.

Nick clomped down the stairs, pulling on his yellow jacket in a hurry. Kairi was going to be here any second and he was hardly ready. He glanced over to the couch where his loyal Pikachu was packing necessities in his gray one strap backpack. Next to the Pikachu was Simon and his Sentret, both looking equally bored and ready to split. Simon was dressed in a light black short sleeved coat lined with purple, underneath was a light purple long sleeved shirt. He was wearing a pair of light blue jeans, held up with a white belt around his waist and black boots on his feet.

Nick zipped up his jacket and sighed. Mrs. Locke sighed, approaching Nick to hug him.

"I knew this day was coming... but I'm still not ready to let you all run off..."

"We'll be okay mom," Nick smiled. "We wont be alone."

"Oh I know! But my babies leaving home...!" the woman looked ready to burst into tears, making Nick sweat a little.

"W-we'll call home... and... you know..." a knock came to the door as Nick tried to back away, with an actual excuse he moved quicker to the door. Kairi greeted him with a smile. Simon got up from the couch before she could say good morning. Infuriated, Nick perused to yell at him for his behavior. Kairi sighed.

"I guess I should go?" She watched Nick's Pikachu rise up from the couch and run off, dragging Nick's bag with it. She did not get too far with it being so heavy. She scooped up the pokemon and bag and turned to leave. "It was nice to see you again ma'am."

"Kairi, can you wait a moment?" The young girl nodded. Mrs. Locke reached into the pockets of her apron to pull out two pokegears. One yellow and white, the other purple and black. "I ordered these for the boys, I was going to surprise them with them but, well you saw, they ran out before I could give it to them!"

"Alright, I can take them to the boys." the woman clapped her hands.

"Thank you so much Kairi!" the girl skipped out of the house and made her way to the professor's lab. She was about to enter when she noticed the bushes shaking. Curious to know what was going on, she peeked at the space between the lab and the tall bushes. To her surprise it was a boy!

He was a tall lanky young man with flaming red hair, his coal eyes were rather angry and concentrated on whatever he was looking at in the window. He looked rather shifty although, dressed in a black coat and navy pants which were accompanied with black dress shoes.

"Gee mister, if ya want to see the professa you can just go in instead of standing there like some creep." Kairi spoke up. The boy jumped, startled that he was caught in the act. He scowled, approaching Kairi and giving her a rough shove.

"Get out of here you stupid bitch." He snarled.

"Alright, not like your a pleasantry to spend time with anyway." the girl frowned, dusting herself off and inspecting the Pikachu for injury. With the two of them unharmed they entered the lab. The professor smiled.

"Kairi! It's great to see you!" the girl smiled back, handing off the bag and Pikachu to the owner and respective pokegear to their owners. Her Miltank came to her side and rubbed her head against her leg.

"It's great to be here professa!"

"Now that you're all gathered here we can begin!" The professor motioned to the table top where three pokemon waited, a Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and a Totodile. "Please chose your starter so you all may begin your journey into the world of pokemon!" he motioned to Kairi.

"Why don't you go first Kairi?"

"Sure thing professa," she approached the table, examining over the pokemon. She made her decision as she lifted up the Chikorita. "I'll take this one!" Simon was the next to come up to the table and without wasting a second he lifted up the Cyndaquil leaving the Totodile for Nick. Just as the professor was about to speak up once more Simon made his way past his friends and out the lab door.

"My, what a quick runner. He must be eager..." the man sighed. "well, I would assume you two are too but if it's not trouble may I ask a favor of you two?"

"Uh, sure."

"Great! My friend Mr. Pokemon lives in a house north of Cherrygrove City, he has an important item for my research but I'm too busy today to pick up. So can I depend on you to to pick it up for me?"

"Sure thing professa!" Kairi took Nick by the arm and pulled him out of the lab. The brunette nearly tripped over his feet but by crashing into Kairi managed to straiten himself out.

"Why'd you stop running?" he asked, rubbing his nose.

"The creepy guy at the window is gone..."

"The creepy guy?"

"Yeah... there was a guy at the window. I saw him before I went into the lab, I guess he left?"

"That's good. We don't need creeps in New Bark." Kairi smiled, taking her friend by the hand.

"Can you believe it? Those people have been fighting for two days straight!"

"That's silly! How can two people fight for two days?" Nick shrugged in response. The two weeded their way through the tall grass to a clearing in the field, there stood a small wooden house with a dark brown roof. The red mail box next to the house indicated this was the house of Mr. Pokemon. Kairi knocked on the door.

"Um, hello? Mr. Pokemon are you in?"

"Ah, one second." The lock clicked and the door opened. An aged old man dressed in a brown suit and matching hat in hand greeted the pair. "You must be Kairi Miller and Nick Sakati, am I correct?"

"Yeah, that's us."

"Come in, come in." Mr. Pokemon lead the two to a couch across the the one room house. Kairi felt her self twitch. She hated messes and boy this place was terrible. Papers were stacked or thrown all over the place, the bookshelves were half empty with books all over the place. The man's desk was covered in book, paper and various cups of half finished and cold coffee.

"So, what did you want to give Professor Elm?"

"This rare..." the man began to clear away paper surrounding his desk to locate a glass cylinder with a large white egg inside. "egg!"

"An egg?"

"Golly. It sure isn't like any egg I've seen on the farm. It must be a pokemon egg!"

"Pokemon don't lay eggs..." Nick replied in a deadpan tone.

"But we've never had a live birth before on our farm before! If they don't get pregnant or fat and the babies suddenly appear they must come from eggs!"

"And that's why I wanted to give it to Elm." Mr. Pokemon smiled. "No one knows where pokemon come from, under the watch of a pokemon professors and if my theory is right, this egg will have our answers!"

"Oh. Well, that surely be a huge step in learning the origins of pokemon." Kairi accepted the offered egg with a grin. The two stood up, ready to leave, when someone entered the building. Surprisingly, it was Professor Oak. Kairi let out a silent strangled scream.

"Ah, it seems I'm a little late." The professor frowned.

"Late for what...?" Nick asked slowly, trying to snap Kairi out of her shock.

"I recently received a letter from my grandson and friends, I was informed Simon and his friends would be leaving for their own journey. I wanted to deliver these to them." The professor pulled three pokedexs from his bag. Kairi's screams slowly raised in volume. Nick's mouth fell open, utter flabbergasted.

"W-w-wait... You mean that Steel girl in Kanto... she know you?"

"She's been friends with my grandson for years and Steel highly regards Simon. So I wanted to help prepare him for his adventure with my new model of pokedex!" The professor approached Nick and handed the yellow and white model into his hand, Oak then placed slipping a white and pale blue pokedex into her bag along with the purple and black model. "Well, take care. I have to get going!" And the professor was gone. Kairi was unable to shriek any more at this time, Nick took her by the arm and bid Mr. Pokemon a farewell.

"Oh golly gosh! Simon knows the prestigious Oak family? He's so amazing!" Nick scoffed. "Oh don't be like that Nick!"

"Alright..." he mumbled. Kairi approached a nearby tree. She could easy tell that it was an apricorn tree, specifiably a pink apricorn tree, with her limited knowledge. She tapped on the hard skin and then lightly sniffed the hard fruit.

"It smells really sweet... I wonder if I can cook it..."

"Probably not, apricorns are mainly used for Pokeathlon training shakes and can only be blended with an Apriblender. Other than that you can make pokeballs out of it but the chances of finding anyone who can still do that is slim to none."

"I'll keep it anyway." Kairi smiled, stowing the fruit into her bag. "You might need it for when you enter the Pokeathlons!" Nick suddenly blinked, feeling a vibration from his back pocket. It took him a moment to realize it was his pokegear.

"If you want it." He replied as he answered the call. "Hello?"

'H-hello? Nick? It's a disaster! Uh, um, it's just terrible! What should I do... Oh...! J-just come back here! Please! I've lost everything!'


	2. Chapter 2

Kairi and Nick were running as fast as their feet could carry them. They made it back to the entrance of the city when Kairi crashed into whoever was entering city limits. Nick pulled her to her feet and dusted her off. She opened her mouth to say sorry when she recolonized the boy. The same boy that was staring into the lab's window hours ago and next to him was a white sheet of paper. She snatched up the paper and gasped.

"You broke into the professor's lab!"

"Kairi! Don't yell such accusations!" Nick shrieked, shocked that kindly Kairi made such a statement.

"Nah. She's right." The boy grumbled, pulling himself to his feet. His eyes narrowed on the couple, rather miffed for a reason beyond being pin pointed as the criminal. "I did it. I raided Elm's lab and set fire to all of his research that I did not need."

"You...! You did what?!" Nick shrieked.

"How could ya do that?! That was his livelihood!"

"He was being rather uncooperative with handing over what I needed." The redhead approached Kairi and grabbed the top of the paper with his forefingers. She refused to let it go. He glared harder at her, as if he was trying to burn holes into her head but Kairi stood her ground.

"It's not yours."

"I think you're mistaken," he spoke slowly, edging closer to her face. "These papers are now my property."

"You're the one mistaken." She swung a fist and landed it right across his cheek. The boy rubbed his jaw, scowling.

"You shitty little bumpkin, you're trying to piss me off?"

"If doing what is right pisses you off, then yes." Kairi made a motion with her hand, understanding, Mittens stomped on the boy's foot. He howled in pain and jumped back.

"You fucking bitch!" With a shout a Shroomish was released from it's pokeball. The mushroom pokemon fired a string of seeds at Mittens as if it was unloading a gun. Kairi made another motion with her hand and Mitten curled into a ball. She rushed forward in her ball like form, kicking up dirt, and ran over the Shroomish. Mittens plowed over the mushroom pokemon before it could even make a second attack, knocking it out. "Piece of shit pokemon!" the boy snarled, returning the Shroomish to it's pokeball. He didn't waste a heartbeat to approach Kairi and slam his elbow into her face, breaking her nose, and snatching back what he stole.

He quickly ran the hell out of there when he heard the girl speak in that stupid tone.

"Black?"

"What kind of name is that?" The redhead scowled. He dropped his trainer ID. He couldn't believe that shit. Would nothing go his way or what? He stormed back to the girl, threw another punch and took back his ID. The brunette was at his friend's aid in an instance and rushed her to the nearest pokecenter. Kairi resorted to shoving tissues up her nose, saying there was no time and rushed back home. The two pre-teens were greeted with quite the surprise of seeing the professor's lab on fire. The flames were not huge, most of them nearly snuffed out, thanks to the firemen at the site. The two pushed their way through the crowd and to the devastated professor, who was a sobbing heap on the ground. Kairi approached the poor man and pat him on the back.

"Thar thar professa," Kairi put on a smile. "Your research may be gone, but you're still okay! You can try and again and with this from Mr. Pokemon you have your first step!" She offered the egg to the man. Professor Elm stared at it for a moment. Once he realized what he was looking at he suddenly started to shake.

"This... this is it...? Mr. Pokemon's discovery? A pokemon egg?!"

"Yep!"

"Pokemon aren't born from eggs!" Nick cried in dismay, throwing his arms into the air.

"Now, now Nick." The professor sighed, accepting the egg from Kairi. "We don't know that, I'll have to research that and see where it take me! I'll build myself back up! Just you see!" he managed to crack a smile. "Thank you for running this errand for me you two. Now please take care, the journey to be the best trainer is a long and hard one. I'll call you if anything comes up." the two bid the professor a farewell. Kairi quickly scanned the crowd before Nick dragged her out of down. She noticed a police officer and hailed him over.

"What is it miss? We're rather busy here."

"I know that sir, but what I needta say is about the problem here."

"Really now?" the man looked rather skeptical.

"Yes, I was in Cherrygrove City, returning from an errand for the professor with my friend here," she motioned to Nick. "when I ran into a boy. He had paper from the professor's labs shoved into his jacket and he admitted to stealing them and committing arson! We got into a scuffle and he broke my nose."

"So, did you get a good look at him?" The officer asked, flipping open a notebook.

"He got all up in her face," Nick sighed. "we both got a good look at him." Nick raised his hand several inches above his head. "He was about five-two, real skinny and really pale with freckles. He was a redhead, and by the looks of it, a natural one. And some black eyes."

"What was he wearing?"

"A black jacket, some jeans, pretty sure they were navy colored, and black dress shoes." Kairi piped up.

"Alright, you may not know it, but did he manage to slip his name?"

"He dropped his trainer ID card in the middle of out scuffle. The name written on it was Black."

"Just Black?"

"Yeah. It's probably a fake name but it's all we have to go with."

"Alright, thank you very much." the two nodded and ran out of the small town. With smiles spread across their faces they ran into the tall grass without a care.

"Do you think we can make it to Violet City before night?"

"Maybe if we run..."

Finally, their very own pokemon adventure would begin!


	3. Chapter 3

Simon stumbled out of the pokeceter with a yawn. About midday he arrived at the city of nostalgic scents, he would of battled the gym leader but Falkner, the bird type specialist, had closed the gym earlier that day.

He checked the clock on his pokegear and frowned, too early for the gym to open up. He glanced to the Sprout Tower in the distance. The three floor swaying wooden tower was a well known tourist spot and used for training by trainers and monks. Maybe he could squeeze in some training before heading to the gym.

Hours passed and another figure emerged from the pokecenter. It was Nick, who was slightly drowsy. He made his way to the gym, the purple roofed building was rather tall, compared to the others surrounding it. Once stepping onto a platform elevator inside he understood why, being flying type gym the high elevation was to psych out new trainers.

Nick swallowed a lump but pushed forward. He really had no reason to be afraid although the walkway was wide enough for three people to walk together side by side. He approached the gym leader, legs shaking slightly. The gym leader did not seem to be more than a few years older than Nick, with blue hair handing over his right eye. He was dressed in a shortcut light blue coat with white trimming and buttons. Underneath was a blue Japanese styled top and shorts with a white uwa-obi around his waist. He was wearing long white socks which were accompanied with a pair of sandals, which clashed according to Nick, and on his forearms were black arm protectors trimmed in red.

"Falkner... I wanna fight you...!" the young man grinned.

"That's great, but don't think using electric types against me will assure an easy win." He opened a pokeball, letting his Pidgeotto free to whip up a strong current of wind. "I'll show you the real power of the magnificent bird pokemon...!" the wind was so strong that Piaki was lifted off his shoulder and pulled into the strong wind current.

"Oh Arceus! Piaki!" the startled female Pikachu let out a screech of fear as it unleashed a strong bolt of lighting, striking Pidgeotto.  
"Rude!" Nick bellowed. "Don't throw Piaki around like that!"

"Hey. Getting thrown around is apart of battling." Nick scowled. Okay. That was true but Piaki was special.

"Give him the special!" Nick commanded. The Pikachu nodded. She crouched down, the propelled herself forward, bright light enveloped her body. She leaped into the air, making a direct hit with Pidgotto. A huge shock of electricity hit the bird, making it fall to the ground. Falkner slid across the field to like a Unovian baseball player catch his partner.

"For pity's sake," the gym leader sighed. "My dad's prized bird pokemon... Well, a lost is a lost." He hailed over the ref, who seemed to be in shock over Falkner's lost. It seemed he didn't lose often... The referee presented Nick with his badge. He reached into his bag and placed the silver wing shaped badge in his gold badge case.

"I'll have to say, I've never seen such an electric attack before. what was that?" Falker grinned

"Oh, that was volt tackle."

"Really now? Tell me about it."

Kairi rode down the escalator with an excited look on her face. She wasn't sure what to do, she wasn't like Nick or Simon who were spoiled of stories of the world, she simply had books.

Kairi shook her her head, curling her fingers around the strap of her bag. No! She had a mission to do! She had no time to be distracted! The young rancher nodded to herself. She stepped off the moving stairway, making her way to the door.

The first step to completing her mission was to find Simon! She made her way down Route 32, if she was quick enough she could make it back to the city without Nick knowing she was gone. She was doing well until she found an apricorn tree and berry bush. She placed the hard yellow fruit into her bag and the berries into small pouch. Just as the last one was packed away the ground rumbled. Kairi blinked.

"What in tarnation?" she looked down the route, watching a dust cloud fly in the distance. She squinted her eyes. The figures soon became clear, it was a stampede of Mareeps. Kairi climbed into the nearest tree and watched the herd of pokemon rush into the town. Why the heck would a bunch of wild pokemon get so scared? The were accustomed to the area and wild pokemon about...

A loud explosion answered her question.

"Oh."

About this time Simon was dragging himself to the pokecenter to heal his pokemon. With a relatively short line he received his pokemon back quickly. He was about to make his way to the gym when he heard a loud boom. The gym's doors swished open shortly after that, the gym leader and Nick stumbled out, startled by the suddenly flux of Mareeps in the city.

Simon felt nervous. Where the heck was Kairi? She would always be with either him or Nick when she had the opportunity. Did he really lose her? Simon scowled. He always had to clean up his brother's messes didn't he? There was suddenly a shrill girly shriek in the air. Neither Nick or Falkner heard it but Simon knew that was Kairi.

She got trampled. Didn't she?

Simon rushed down Route 32 to find his friend, charred and hair fringed, holding a baby Mareep in her arm surrounded by people dressed in black and each uniform had a giant red R on it. Simon scowled, tossing his pokeball. Quilava appeared before Kairi, the pokemon got down on all fours and ignited the flames on it's head and backside.

"Quilava, attack!" the pokemon expelled flames from it's body, setting fire to the people dressed in black and burning their pokemon. The volcano pokemon curled into a ball, lighting itself up and rolled into the remaining pokemon.

"Give it up Team Rocket!" Being recognized the men and women fled with their injured pokemon. Simon sighed and his face quickly twisted into a scowl.

"Kairi, what the heck are you doing?! You're such a mess, getting into a fight with Team Rocket!"

"I knew it!"

"What?"

"The kind old partner I know is still in here!" she jabbed a finger at his chest making him wince.

"Yeah, well, whatever." He turned to walk away but Kairi grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him off to the pokecenter. Simon cursed her for her strength gained from all her hard farm work. He tried to run off as Kairi dropped off the baby Mareep but she still refused to let go. This was embarrassing.

"Kairi, you can let go of me now."

"Are you sure about that?" the reached into her bag and whipped out his pokedex. "A mister Professor Oak gave this to me, a pokedex! He told me to deliver it to you but," Simon reached out for the device, desperately in need of it but Kairi held it away from his grasp. He tried to reach it again but she moved it away once more.

"Hang out with me and you'll get it!"

Simon sighed, crossing his arms.

"Fine. Only because I really need it." Kairi clapped her hands with glee. She took Simon by the wrist and dragged him out of the pokemon center, the soles of his shoes digging into the ground as he was dragged of.

This was going to be terrible.

And it was. Of all places Kairi had dragged him off to it was to the nearby ruins. Then again there wasnt much of a choice of where to go with that weird tree blocking the way.

"Aint it a sight to see?" Kairi smiled, sweeping her arms across the horizon.

"Sure if you like dirt, dirt and more dirt."

"Aw, c'mon Simon. There's more than dirt out here." Kairi took him by the wrist and dragged him through a series of one room buildings that were missing walls and roof tops covered in mold and grass. Kairi pulled him into a single room structure that was in one piece, at least when compared to the others. Some chunks of rubble resided on the floor along with puddles of water from small holes in the roofing. In the center of the room was a small wall situated between two pillars and a stand covered in what looked like puzzle pieces made of clay.

Kairi tried to arrange the puzzle but quickly found herself unable to work it out. She tried again but no dice. Simon sighed, eye darting to her bag. He would steal it if he could but Kairi would notice him reaching for it, even while stressing over a puzzle.

Simon placed his face in his hands as Kairi tried to put the puzzle together again. He threw his hands in the air, shoved her aside and put it together himself. It took him only a matter of seconds. Once placed together the puzzle displayed a Kabuto ready to attack.

"There. Happy? Can we g-" the floor suddenly gave away, making Kairi and Simon fall with loud yells. Luckily, instead of landing on their faces, Mittens landed first and acted as a cushion for Simon, who caught Kairi. In the distance there was a shrill scream and a stomping of feet. A man dressed in a lab coat rounded the corner.

"What's going on?! How did you get in here?!"

"The floor caved in sir," Kairi spoke up, climbing out of her friend's arms. The man looked up and shrieked. There was a hole in the roof. A hole. What did these terrible kids do to his ruins?!

"What did the floor cave in?! What did you do, you disrespectful kids?!"

"Calm down," Simon groaned. "We solved some stupid puzzle and the floor caved in! That's all we did here." the man suddenly looked excited.

"Solved a puzzle you say? What was the image formed? No one ever solved it before!"

"Are you kidding me? It's a Kabuto, you study ruins and ancient things and you seriously couldn't tell it was a Kabuto." the man ignored his rant and clapped his hands.

"A Kabuto. Amazing!" Simon placed his face in his hands. Why did this happen. Why must he suffer?

"As promised, one pokedex." Simon snatched the device from Kairi with a scowl. He couldn't believe all the noise and mayhem he had to suffer through to get what was rightfully his. Grumbling under his breath he left the pokecenter.

Kairi smiled. Today had proven all she needed to know. Well, most of it. Simon was still good and caring.

"Miss, the Mareep you dropped off is healthy and in perfect condition." Nurse Joy called. Kairi lifted the sheep pokemon off the counter and hugged it close to her.

"Oh it's so cute! I will name this gal Fluffy!" at that moment Nick came into the pokemon center, dirty, covered in hoof prints and tired. He dragged himself to his friend to lay his head on her shoulder.

"I'm so tired Kairi... I had to help herd Mareeps back into the wild. I don't know how you or Terra did that..."

"Well, we usually have a herd pokemon help us... it's kinda easy when ya know what you're doing. Why didn't ya ask me partner?"

"I couldn't find you at all..." Kairi sighed and pat her friend on the back.

"C'mon Nick, let's go to bed early today."

"Where were you all day?"

Later that night Kairi received a call at the pokecenter. The nurse informed her that a package was waiting for her at the pokemart, which was across town. In retrospect that made no sense since to get to the market you would have to pass the center.

Kairi returned to her room, slipped on her sneakers, making sure not wake Nick and left the pokemon center. She made haste to the blue roofed building with the tall rotating sign, she stepped into the shop, dressed only in her pajamas. No one really paid her heed, thankfully.

"Sorry to call you out so late." a voice spoke up. It was the professor's assistant, thankfully he looked chipper after what happened to the lab. "But the professor wanted you to have this!" the man jutted out his arms which carefully cradled the pokemon egg she delivered a day ago.

"The egg? Golly, but don't yo need it for your research?"

"Indeed we do but we cannot conduct our research at this time. You see, the egg needs to be nurtured and loved by not only people and pokemon, as a growing trainer you'll have plenty of pokemon. At least that's how the hypothesis works."

"I guess that makes sense, but why me?"

"You're a farmer of course,"

"Rancher actually sir..."

"Technicalities, still, you have experience raising young pokemon so we would know it's safe as can be in your care."

"I see, well, I'll do all I can to raise this pokemon and call you once it hatches." Kairi smiled. She bid the man a farewell and a goodnight. She stepped out into the cool night air when she nearly bumped into a woman dressed in extravagant black and gold robes. She was about to apologize when she noticed what was in Kairi's arms.

"Me oh my... that egg must be...!" The young woman giggled. "I see... handed to Mr. Pokemon, then to Professor Elm and now to you! Now I get it," the young woman took a step back. "that egg is an important egg. Please do take good care of it. I'm counting on you."

"Uh... okay." the woman smiled, she gracefully twirled before walking away as if that was not an awkward and sudden conversation out of nowhere.


	4. Chapter 4

After two days of travel down route 32 and 33 and battling trainers though Union Cave the duo arrived at the last stretch of Route 33. Which was right outside Azalea Town, the second town on the trip to enter the pokemon league. Sadly, it was raining cats and dogs.

"Ew, it's raining." Nick unzipped his coat and used it to cover his head.

"At least the crops are gonna get watered..." Kairi mumbled, using a single hand to keep the falling water out of her eyes.

"We're too far from New Bark right now, so I doubt this rain would reach them."

"That's disapointin' partner. Ma and Terra just don't get a break often enough from watering crops and the field is so huge!"

"They'll be fine Kairi."

"Of course..." The blond stopped walking for a moment. She glanced around but saw nothing out of the ordinary. How odd. She was sure someone was there. Maybe it was all in her head? She shrugged it aside and rushed ahead to catch up with Nick.

The two passed a stone well on their way into town. Standing before the entrance was a man dressed in familiar black uniform. Kairi frowned. Another one of those 'Rockets'? What were these Rockets. This man sure didn't look like a space ship. That didn't make a whole a lot of sense...

The pair strolled into the town, for some reason, there seemed to be a heavy and said air, something not caused by the rain. pokemon center. They took a spot in line after another trainer. Kairi made an annoyed face and pouted.

"Nick," He perked up, glancing over to his friend. "what is a 'Team Rocket'?" Nurse Joy dropped the pokeballs she was handling and the trainer in front of the pair flinched. Nick looked at his friend incredulously.

"Are you kidding me Kairi...?" she quizzically tilted her head.

"Sorry. I'm not jokin' partner."

"Kairi, Team Rocket is a villainous organization that capture, sell, harm and even kill pokemon!"

"What? Why would anyone do that?"

"Because they're crazy and power hungry! That's why!" he exclaimed. He placed his face in his hands and shook his head. "How could you not know this?"

"We had to sell our radio a few years back 'cause we were doing poorly on the farm... after we got profits up Ma never got the chance to go buy a new one..." Kairi cursed herself. "Dang it! I should of got one when we went to Olivine a couple of years ago." the pair noticed the trainer before them quickly running off as soon as they got their pokemon. Kairi and Nick placed their pokemon on the counter. The jittery nurse quickly collected the pokemon and took them to the healing device.

"You wouldn't of even heard of them to years ago, you would of heard all about Team Rune. They're just as bad as Team Rocket... They were causing all kinds of trouble in Kanto two years ago. Lucky Simon didn't get involved in any of that mess when he visited his friend."

"I'll say! I think I'll have to report this!" Kairi suddenly exclaimed, looking serious as she could be. With an overbite it could be complicated at times.

"Report 'this'? What is this?"

"Those Rocket jerks were the ones that got all the pokemon in a tizzy yesterday at Violet City!"

"How would you even know that?!"

"They cornered me."

"Wha...what?!" Nick sputtered. "You're not hurt? They didn't hurt you did they?!"

"Nope, Simon helped me out."

There were times Nick was utterly shocked by badly Kairi lacked important knowledge. This was one of those moments. How the heck could anyone forget who Team Rocket was? Sure, they were thought to disbanded seven or so years ago, but that's no reason to not know about them at all!

"Okay Nick," Kairi suddenly exclaimed throwing an arm in the air. "Go fight the gym leader and I'll go collect supplies since we're running low!" she tightened her arm around the egg case and rushed off to the blue roof building.

Nick sighed. He really hoped she wouldn't run off and do something dumb while he was gone. But then again it was Kairi and she was a girl of adventure.

Nick took the southbound path to the gym. He took a deep breath and pulled on the handle. The door did not open. He pulled again but the door refused to open. It was locked.

"Oh c'mon...!" he banged his fist on the one way glass door with irritation. "I can't believe this..." the brunette sulked a little longer until a hand gripped his shoulder. At first he thought it was Kairi but this hand was too big to be hers. It squeezed his shoulder, making him jump.

"Hello Nick Sakati," said a smooth and smug voice. The worst [?] thing about this was that he could recognize it. It was Black. What the heck was this guy doing here? An asshole like him should be on the run from the cops after the things he did in New Bark.

"How do you know my name...?" his voice shook slightly. He never did introduce himself, maybe he overheard his first name when talking to Kairi but he never once mentioned his last name. The hand on his shoulder moved to the back of his neck, giving it a rough squeeze, keeping him in place. Nick winced. The older redhead grinned, leaning closely to Nick's ear.

"I come bearing you a one time offer Nick."

"I don't want it." Black grabbed Nick by his shoulder once more, roughly grabbing and throwing him against the door with a thud. Nick let out a small grunt. Black leaned in close to his face, leering angrily.

"Oh come on, I haven't even told you it yet."

"I don't want it," Nick repeated under that angry gaze. "I don't want anything associated with a creep like you."

"A creep you say?" Black took a step back with a scowl. "I can guaranteed you'll regret this."

"I'll bet you I wont." Nick sneered, pushing Black away from him. The older male glared, brushing past Nick. The brunette was about to walk off when he felt a sharp slap to his behind. He let out an undignified yelp. He whipped his head, looked over his shoulder with a shocked look and a red face. Black sent him a perverse and yet smug look before disappearing from sight.

"He...he just..." Nick hurried away. He passed a small hut just as an angry old man rushed past him, ranting about Team Rocket. A little girl followed after the man before falling on her face and bursting into tears. Nick pushed aside his embarrassment and approached the girl, trying to calm her down.

At that moment Kairi exited the store with an armful of fresh and new supplies. Various bottles of healing potions, an escape rope and even a few pieces of stationary. She smiled contently when an angry old man stormed passed her, angrily waving his fist.

"Um, sir? Is everything okay?" the man continued on his way. Worried that he didn't hear her she followed out to the well. Much to her shock the old man easily lifted the man dressed in black in front of the well and threw him aside and climbed down the well's old ladder. Kairi wasn't sure what to do now. The old man was strong and able, but still old. Was she to pursue or stay here? The answer became obvious as she heard what sounded like a scream of obscene words.

She clamored down the ladder to find the old man on his back.

"Uhm. Sir?"

"Damn it all! I threw out my back!"

"That's terrible, I'll go get help." She made it up only one step before the man screamed at her.

"You cannot leave! I refuse to let that happen! You have to go save the Slowpoke in my steed!"

"I haveta what?"

"The Slowpoke! Those damned Rockets stole all our Slowpokes and are chopping off their tails for snacks! Snacks! Cruelty of the cruelest cruel!"

"That's awful! Okay, I'll go help the Slowpokes!" Kairi pulled a pokeball from her bag and rushed into the next cavern. With a battle cry Kairi unleashed Philip. The Chikorita pelted a not so unsuspecting Rocket with sharp leaves, knocking back it's Rattata. Philip threw it's weight into the following tackle knocking the pokemon out before it could strike. Kairi herself then punched the Rocket in the face, busting his lip and leaving a bruise.

It was fairly obvious the noise she was making was not going unnoticed. A female grunt soon arrived on the scene. She ordered her Zubat to use supersonic, confusing Philip. The poor grass type ended up walking into a near by rock. Kairi swapped her starter for Fluffy. The small sheep puffed up it's wool and made it spark to look menacing. She fired a thunderbolt attack, charring the bat and instantly knocking it out.

"Why you little...!"

"Ya keep yer mouth quiet rude lady!" Kairi instructed fluffy to rub it's body against the Ekans. The pokemon's static ability made it grow stiff. Now with her enemy paralyzed Kairi sent Mittens into the battlefield and with a wave of her arm the cow curled into a ball and ran over the snake, knocking it out. Kairi yelled once more, punching the female grunt in her stomach. The woman keeled over, groaning in pain.

The blond made her way to the last section of the well and was met with a ghastly sight. Various tables covered in blood and bloodied chopping bladed, poor innocent Slowpokes trapped in cages and giant piles of chopped off Slowpoke tails.

Only one man remained. An older male with green hair who sported a bored look on his face. He glanced up and blinked a moment before frowning.

"What? What are you doing here?"

"I'm gonna beat ya up! What ya doing is wrong!"

"If you really intend to interfere with our work don't expect any mercy." The man grumbled, running a white gloved finger across the bloodied knife in his hand. He nodded to his Koffing. The pokemon floated forward, ready to fight.

Kairi swung her arm, making the usual motion for a rollout attack but she made it in the direction of a rock. Mittens understood the intention and nodded. She rolled into a ball and steered her way in the direction of the rock, bouncing off it she made a direct hit on the Koffing, knocking it out. The green haired man looked up, surprised his pokemon was knocked out.

"Well then. This was not expected. I'll have to say I'm surprised. But, a girl like you is just a tiny obstacle, hardly a roadblock on our mission. I'd advice you to be afraid of what's coming to you." the man's Koffing suddenly rose up, expelling a thick cloud of smoke from it's body. Once it faded, all of Team Rocket's members, human and pokemon alike were gone. She sighed, she opened the Slowpoke's unlocked cage and slowly, one by one, Slowpokes climbed out of the cage, making their way to the cave's entrance.

Suddenly, there was a rocking coming from the egg. She pulled the egg from her bag with worry. Oh jeez. What happened? Did it break or something? The egg suddenly began to glow, Kairi winced at the bright light in the darkness. From the egg came a little, egg-like Pokémon much to Kairi's surprise. The Pokémon had tiny spikes on his head and its body was very similar to the egg it hatched from. Its little hands and feet were wiggling about as it let out a cheerful cry. Kairi's eyes sparkled. She lifted the baby above her head with a wide grin.

"Aw! Yer so cute! I think I'll name ya Apollo!" the baby cried out, waving it's stubby arms in glee.


	5. Chapter 5

After taking care of the situation at the well and letting the Slowpoke free, the pokemon got help for the old man and brought him home. Two days passed before he demanded the presents of both Kairi and Nick, leading the two pre-teens to where they currently are. Inside Kurt's house with the old man bowing deeply before the two of them.

"I thank you again for your assistance miss," Kairi scratched her cheek awkwardly. "if it was not for you we would still be in trouble. You've saved us."

"It was no problem sir, I only did what was right." Kurt reached under his table to a basket full of pokeballs. They were all types she had never seen before, some blue, some pink and even green. The old man offered a white ball decorated with black and red to the girl.

"It's a fast ball. You see, I make pokeballs from apricorns! If you give me one I can make a pokeball in a day or two. I am glad to give you my service! " Kairi let out a shriek of glee, she pulled the two apricorns from her bag, holding them out to the old man. He accepted the tough skinned fruits and turned to Nick. "And thank you for taking care of my granddaughter."

"It was no problem..." Nick cracked a smile, rubbing the back of his neck. He climbed to his feet, dusted his pants off and bowed. "Now, if you excuse me. I need to see if the gym leader is in."

"I should go too, so you can work." She jotted down the man's number in a small journal, she then bid the two a farewell and skipped out the house to the pokecenter to inform the professor about the hatched egg.

Nick understood that gym leaders had free reign on how to design their gyms but this was just crazy. Ignoring the trees and grass growing in the building there were giant pits which could only be crossed with giant spider like vehicles. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that there were several of these spiders total. Which ones lead to Bugsy was beyond him.

With a sigh, Nick climbed onto the nearest giant green spider. He pressed a button with his foot and the spider inched forward at a rather slow pace. Nick groaned. This was going to take forever.

But, at least forever was only an hour long. After multiple spider rides and switching leavers Nick stumbled before the gym leader. He was probably older than Nick but with his height it was hard to determine. His purple hair was messy and short cut. The young man was dressed in what seemed to be green explore gear and shorts, a yellow ascot around his neck, attached to his waist was a bag full of books and a magnifying glass. White knee high socks and brown loafers. The young man grinned.

"Finally a battle! I've been sick for days, when I finally get better I'm told the Team Rocket scoundrels are already gone. You wouldn't happen to be the one who took care of that would you?" Nick let out a deadpan sigh.

"Actually, that was my friend Kairi..."

"I see, well, I guess we all can't be heroes all at once!" The two trainers let out their pokemon, a green cocooned Metapod on Bugsy's side and a Pidgey on Nick's side of the field. The challenger commanded a peck attack. The small bird flew up into the air and swooped down, jabbing it's beak at the soft Metapod before it had a chance to fully harden it's self. With a frown Bugsy let out his next pokemon, a Kakuna.

"Kakuna, use poison sting!" the yellow cocoon pointed it's tail at the target and fired. It was a direct hit on the bird. Nick felt bad for his pokemon as it hit the ground with a thud. Nick switched out his starter, which had evolved to it's next form, Croconaw, thinking that Pidgey would fare better in his pokeball for the time being. The big jaw pokemon crouched down, awaiting orders.

"Okay Blaster, use bite!" Blaster pounced, grabbing the Kakuna in it's jaw. He failed its pray around as if it was a toy before throwing it aside and into a nearby tree.

"Down to my last pokemon then..." Bugsy shook his head. "No way you'll beat my partner Scyther!" A green pray mantis appeared on the field. The pokemon rubbed its scythe like forearms together in anticipation. Nick glanced to the pokeball of his poisoned pokemon. Inside the pokeball the poison was slowed, maybe, if he was quick enough his Pidgey could take down Scyther and then take him to the pokecenter before it got any worst.

"Okay Brave, use gust!" the tired and weak bird complied, flapping it's wings at a rapid pace causing the trees to shake and lose leaves fly but Scyther was unaffected. The bug pokemon jumped into the air and slammed it's bladed arm against the bird, as if he was a professional baksetball player and slam dunking a ball into the hoop.

Nick winced in the place of his pokemon. Scyther was a bug pokemon so why had the peck attack hardly phase him? He reached into his bag and flipped open his PokéDex. He pointed the device to the giant bug pokemon across the field. The device scanned the Scyther, once completed, it supplied Nick with basic information ranging from natural habitat, size, weight and even type.

Much to his surprise the bug was a dual type, bug AND flying. Well, that explained why flying types were not that much if a great choice. He snapped close his PokéDex and sent Piaki out to replace Brave.

"Okay, start off with tackle!" Piaki threw herself into the abdomen of the giant bug. Needless to say it was not pleased and delivered the same treatment to her as it gave Brave. Thankfully Piaki was able to handle it and she returned with a volt tackle. That was enough to take down the bug type. Bugsy let out a sigh then cracked a smile as he returned his pokemon to its pokeball.

"Wow, you're pretty good! It seems my research isn't complete, take this badge. You earned it!" the purple haired male placed a badge in Nick's hand. It was a red circle with black dots, much like a Ledyba. He grinned. One step closer to becoming champion!

Kairi was rocking on her heels when Nick rushed up to the nurse. She happily accepted his pokemon and he let out a sigh. The blond strolled over to her friend with a bucktooth smile on her freckled face.

"Well howdy Nick, tough battle?"

"A bit," he sighed. "Did you get all the supplies? You know, before that Rocket thing at the well? I forgot to ask about it and Brave got poisoned."

"That's misfortunate partner..." Kairi reached into her bag and pulled out white plastic bag full of of goods from the store. "Yer share is in the bag Nick."

"Thanks Kairi." he smiled, stowing the items away in his bag.

"Nick Sakati," Nurse Joy called. The boy took back his pokemon and the two exited the pokecenter. Nick although was lost in thought. Was this how Black knew his name? Was he hanging around in a pokecenter without his knowledge and heard the nurse call his name? Should he even tell Kairi that Black harassed him yesterday outside the gym?

"Kairi..." she turned to him with a smile. He opened his mouth to speak but he couldn't find the words. His friend tilted her head.

"What's wrong Nick?"

"No, nothing. Nevermind." he sighed.

"If ya say so..." she suddenly scowled. Nick went tense. Was she mad at him? "Ah geez! What are ya doing here jerk?"

"I heard Team Rocket was taken down by some kid..." Nick nearly shrieked, jumping to his friend's side. What the hell was up with Black and sneaking up on him?! Was this creep stalking them or something? Kairi noticed the pokeball in Black's hand was clenched rather tightly."You wouldn't happen to be the one that took them down Kairi." Black shook his head before she could answer. "No, of course not... a weak bitch like you-"

"Excuse ya, but fer ya information I _did_ beat Team Rocket. If yer gonna waste ya time tryin' to insult me ya should move them skinny legs and leave now."

"Are you kidding me?!" Black demanded with an incredulous tone. "Team Rocket was taken down by a weakling like you?!"

"What'cha talkin' about? I beat ya in our first battle!" Black breathed heavily through his nose. The noise and scowl on his face quite clearly expressed his anger at the situation. Why was beyond her. Maybe he wanted to prove himself better than them? Good luck with that.

Black threw the pokeball in his hand, unleashing his own Quilava. The mouse like pokemon spewed flames at Kairi and Nick's feet.

"Watch your aim you useless shit," Black growled.

"Ya should watch yer mouth!" Kairi barked, letting Mitten's take the field. "That's ya pokemon! Ya should treat 'em with more respect!" The cow mooed and took a defensive stance. Kairi swung her arm across the horizon and Mittens brought her hoof onto the back of the Quilava. Black blinked. That was strange. She swung her arm down vertically during their last battle. He was sure of that.

It was moments like this that Black found himself fascinated and infuriated with Kairi at the same time. She never spoke in battle, never uttered a single command. All she had to do was wave her arm and her pokemon got the message, that stupid Miltank, 'Mittens', understood the signs better than any other pokemon she owned making it obvious she was well immersed in these tactics.

But it was these same interesting tactics that angered him, it made her unpredictable, much like her personality, and she changed what the motions mean every once in a while. He could be anticipating one attack but get another instead. What an infuriating woman.

So strong and yet utterly weak and pathetic.

Black glared down at his defeated Houndour. With a scowl he returned the pokemon to it's pokeball.

"Pathetic. You're such a weakling... you only lucked out Kairi..." Black turned on his heel and excused himself from the sight of the two trainers, who glanced to each other.

"We should get goin'."

"Yeah... let's go."


	6. Chapter 6

She was so close. So very close. The confounded pokemon wouldn't notice her this time. So very close...

**SNAP**

Kairi made a face. She stepped on a twig and the Farfetch'd took of running again. What a little jerk. In the distance she heard a yell. This could mean Nick was either mauled by the bird or he managed to catch it. Thankfully, it was the latter, Nick held tight grasp on the squirming bird and returned it to its worried trainer.

"Oh thank you! You helped me out of a real tight pinch!" the boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a disk from his pocket. "It's not much but it's a HM for cut." the young man waved, making his way out of the forest.

"That's neat! We needed on of these ta get out the forest."

"I guess we got lucky." Nick shrugged. Kairi unleashed Philip and pressed the disk to her pokemon's forehead. His eyes suddenly went wide, taking in all the information and knowledge on the disk.

"Is that normal?"

"...I... I don't know." Philip ripped it's self away from the disk, turning to a thin, ragged tree. The pokemon whipped its vines and chopped the tree in one blow.

"Wow Philip! Yer so amazin' little guy!" the little Chikorita looked proud as he walked forward, as if he was leading the pair. After hours of wondering around the duo was closing in on the end of the forest. Kairi looked up and sighed. The trees were so tall light couldn't peak in and she could hardly see the sky at all but she had a feeling the night was already upon them. She reached out and took Nick's hand.

"It's dark out, so let's hold hands so we don't lose each other." Nick blushed but nodded no less. At that moment a young lady, dressed in a kimono, was noticed by the group. She walked back and fourth, worried.

Kairi squinted her eyes. Was that the same girl from Violet City? No, her kimono was colored with shades of purple rather than black.

"Excuse me miss, but what's wrong...?" the kimono clad girl jumped. She had hardly noticed anyone was around. She took a step closer to see who had found her and a warm smile crossed her face.

"Oh, it's you. What a pleasant surprise." 'it's you'? How did she know her? It wasn't the same girl from before, she knew that for sure, her voice was different. Kairi blinked. "I've become lost in these woods and it's become nightfall, what a misfortune." Philip squeezed it's self between Kairi and the kimono girl. Using his vines, he pointed in the direction of the exit, a little north-west from where they currently stood. "My, my, what a smart pokemon. I thank you for your assistance, I'll take my leave now." despite wearing wooden sandles the kimono girl hurriedly walked off. Nick and Kairi looked down at Philip.

"Ya knew how to get out all along, didn't ya?" the pokemon glanced aside.

By the time the two exited the forest and into the terminal between it and route 34 they chose to stay the night in the terminal. Morning came and the two dragged themselves out of bed, prepared for the day and made their way to the city.

The houses were big, apartments were stacked sky high and streets the seemed to sparkle of golden yellow hues. So many sights and attractions filled the city. It was home of one of the biggest department stores, the radio tower that broadcast over Johto and Kanto, and one of the few global trade stations around the world. Goldenrod was truly a magnificent metropolis.

Kairi's eyes sparkled, grabbing Nick by the hand she took off running into the city. Nick managed to catch himself before being captured in a tourist haze. He shook his head and pointed to the pokecenter.

"We need to go heal up our pokemon and wash out clothes," he motioned to the dirt and twigs in Kairi's hair. "and... you know, look presentable at least. They might not let us go visit some places dressed like this."

"Oh, yer right Nick! We haven't washed our clothes in a while... it would probably be good if we cleaned them all while we looked around town!" The two made their way to the pokemon center, it was bigger, much bigger, than the one they saw in Azalea Town and Violet City. The insides were rather luxurious, marble tiled floor, velvet red couches and glass tables for trainers to lounge and dine upon. Various other high priced items decorated the place. The nurse smiled, greeting the pair.

"Welcome to the Goldenrod City Pokemon Center, how may we be of service to you?"

"Yeah, we would like to check out a room, and use the facilities please." with a smile the nurse turned to her computer, typing away on the keyboard.

"Alright, who's name should I put the room under?"

"Nick Sakati,"

"Alright Mr. Sakati, I need to see your and your friend's ID please." The two caught up their IDs, Nurse Joy scanned the IDs, proving their authenticity. She returned the IDs and placed a pair of key before the two with a smile. "Here you are. The facilities are down the hall and to the left."

"Thank you kindly ma'am." Kairi took her key and ran down the hall to the washing machines. It was hard to believe it was a month on the road already. She shoved as many of her shirts and overalls into the washer along with her dirty socks, adding the soap she slammed the machine close.

Within the hour the two pre-teens were clean and changed into nicer attire, a pale blue dress for Kairi and a pair of sandles, clean brown slacks and a white shirt for Nick, and they were ready to explore the city.

"Where do we go first?" Nick inquired. Kairi shrugged, she had heard of the many places in the city and now that she had the chance she was overwhelmed with what to do.

"I don't know, maybe a show...?"

"Like a movie?" Nick looked thoughtful. "Sure! A movie sounds great, I haven't seen a movie in forever! I haven't been to a theater before and neither have you, it will be a new experience!" Nick took his friend by the hand, running down golden streets.

.

..

...

..

.

The two friends spent a happy day together, exploring the city, eating at a fine restaurant and checking all the sights it had to offer. Well, most of them. The city was so big and there was still so much left to do but night had fallen leading to business to closing their doors to the young. They decided to return to the pokemon center for the night.

The two made their way to the washing machines and dryers to pick up their laundry, to find out that some other trainer had moved their clothes to the dryers and baskets for them instead of throwing the clothes on the floor. Bless that trainer's heart and soul. The two lugged their respective clothes into their room, leaving baskets aside to deal with later, before jumping into their beds for the night.

Kairi was the first to awaken the following morning. Nick was sleeping on his back with his mouth wide open, sheets half hanging off his waist and half on the floor. She rose from her bed to cover her friend properly and turned her attention to her laundry. By the time she finished a knock came to the door.

"I have a message for a Kairi Miller, is she awake?"

"Yes ma'am?" Kairi asked in a hushed voice.

"I got a call from your mother, she said she ordered you a pokegear, it's waiting at the department store's electronics floor and she sent me this pokemon, a Ponyta named Ember."

"Oh, thank ya kindly ma'am," Kairi smiled accepting the pokemon. The nurse smiled, excusing her self to continue her work. The blond quickly scribbled a note down for Nick in case he woke up while she was out and placed the pokeball down on the note. After all, Ember was for Nick. The Ponyta was very fond of Nick, she was probably rather upset that he wasn't visiting her for a while and was sent here to cheer up.

Kairi pulled on her usual trainer gear and clomped down the streets with a smile on her face. A brand new pokegear. It must have been expensive!

In the distance, at the very same apartment store Kairi was heading towards, Black was making use of the timed binoculars. He scowled at his rival. What an overexcited loser. The binoculars' vision suddenly went black, indicating he ran out of time. He shrugged it off, walking to a simple prize ball machine when his pokegear rang. He scowled at the name on the screen.

"What do you want?" he demanded with irritation, shoving money into the prize machine.

_'How long do you intend to be out?'_

"As long as I want." Black sneered, extracting his prize. It was a small keychain in the shape of an Eevee.

_'You cannot keep ignoring her.'_ Black inspected the keychain with a bored look on his face.

"Calm down, I got her under my thumb, even got her a stupid present. Besides, with the way shes attached to me she'll be all sunshine and rainbows the second I get back. She's too easy to manipulate." A far too amused grin covered his face.

_'I see sir, carry on.'_


	7. Chapter 7

Days passed and the duo had seen many placed it had to offer but on this one day, the room in the pokecenter was empty but for one occupant and his beloved pokemon. Nick woke up around ten o'clock that afternoon at Piaki's hand work. He always requested her to wake him up if he tried to sleep past ten. The boy yawned, as he did he noticed Piaki pointing to something urgently. It was a note from Kairi.

_Dear Nick,_

_I'm off ta store. Ma got me a shiny new pokegear! I haveta go pick it up! Take care. Also,__ Ma sent Ember. She musta missed ya real bad so take care of her Nick!_

_I got my pokegear! It's a very cute model too. I called Kurt to make sure it worked, it did and he told me my pokeballs were ready so I'm going to Azalea for the day, I probably wont be back until later so have fun today!_

_Love Kairi._

Well, that sucked... To explore this city alone would be boring and Kairi would miss out on things... He could go ahead and go to the gym. Yeah. That would probably be the best to do for now. Nick yawned once more, stretching to the ceiling and climbed out of bed to prepare for another day.

The gym was only a fifteen minute walk away from the pokecenter, he took one step in before stepping back slightly. The gym had a very girly flare to it, sweet scented flowers and potted plants decorated the gym, the floor was covered in light pink and cream colored tiles, a series of stairs and platforms covered the floor to make a giant maze trainers had to traverse through and waiting in the maze were many pretty girls ready to fight.

He wasn't really expecting this. He sucked at puzzles.

About two hours later, Nick managed to bat away the lasses and beauties in the gym, this only managed to leave him annoyed. He never understood why trainers need doubles, even triples, of the same pokemon. What was even the point of that? With a sigh he shook his head and approached the gym leader. She was a young lady in her mid teens with pink hair with golden hairclips and matching pink eyes. She was dressed in light white sports jacket with gold buttons and trimmed red. She was dressed in jean shorts, blue and black striped knee high socks, red and white sneakers and had a red sweatband on her right wrist.

"Well, what can I do for you cutie?" She winked. Nick shuttered and glanced aside. She was hitting on him. Ew. Gross. Getting hit on by strangers was weird.

"My name is Nick Sakati of New Bark Town! I've come to challenge you!" Whitney's pink eyes sparkled as she let out a dreamy sigh.

"You're Kairi's friend! How cute! You're way more adorable than I thought you would be!"

"W-what... how do you know Kairi?"

"I met her at the radio tower today! She was so confused about the building was adorable! She was trying to win a radio card, she was pretty good at the quiz too. She ended up telling me about a cute friend of her's named Nick and how he's going to enter the Pokemon League!"

"Oh, that's nice of her...?"

"And you know what else is cute?"

"...No?"

"My pokemon of course! But just because we're cute doesn't mean we wont beat you up! Go Clefairy!" Nick was finally relieved that the battle beginning, that whole conversation was getting kinda unnerving for a while. He quickly released Ember, the blue flamed horse pokemon clomped her hooves, excited to see Nick. She affectionately nuzzled her face against his. He smiled, petting her flaming mane. Whitney gasped. "Wow! What a pretty pokemon and it even has blue flames! But no where as good as mine! Now, double slap Clefairy!"

"Ember is special like that. She's one of rare coloring of pokemon, a shiny pokemon! Now, use flame wheel!" The horse's body was enveloped in blue flames and she charged to meet Clefairy. The force of the horse slammed into the fairy pokemon, making it go off kilter but it came right back to at least land two slaps on the horse. Of course Ember would have none of that and stomped on the fairy's head, making it smash face first into the floor.

"How dare you do that to my Clefairy!" Whitney growled "Clefairy use Metronome !" with its face still on the ground, Clefairy lifted its arms and waved its stubby fingers back and forth. The attack was chosen and Clefairy lifted it's face and opened it's mouth to... unleash a torrent of leaves. Ember, being a fire pokemon, was hardly harmed. The horse glared, Nick's face was on the floor and Whitney was horrified.

"Stomp on it..." Nick called to break the silence. Ember complied, stepping on Clefairy again, knocking it out. With a huff, Ember returned to Nick's side where she was once more pet with affection.

"One left..." Whitney muttered returning her Clefairy and released her own Miltank in it's place. "But I ain't losing!" Nick paled slightly. Miltanks for always a force to be reckoned with. Kairi taught him that well, especially when he made his first visit to her farm and from watching her fight Black. Rollout had to be the deadliest attack this pokemon could do, it could easily take down half of his team too.

Well, maybe Baster could do something. He was a very strong fellow and he could take a rollout or two. Probably. Nodding to himself Nick recalled Ember and released his Croconaw. The big jaw pokemon let out a roar before crouching into a defensive stance.

"Knock him around with a rollout Miltank!"

"Grab her!" Whitney blinked. No one ever attempted that before. That was just crazy! Well, it's not like it would work anyway... Except that was not the case, Blaster grabbed the Miltank and supaplex her onto her back. On Nick's instructions Blaster bit down on the Miltank's back. The cow let out a howling moo of pain and scrambled away to the side of it's trainer. Whitney gave her pokemon a look of pity before scowling at Nick.

"You're so rude!" she barked. "I'm gonna make you pay! Stomp on that jerk Miltank! Stomp on it!" the Miltank shook it's head, obviously not wanting to deal with that evil Croconaw. Whitney let out a stressed yell and flailed her limbs, Nick used this opportunity to bast the trainer and pokemon with a water gun. No one could tell if Miltank was actually down or just pretending to avoid confrontation with the big jaw pokemon, regardless, the referee declared Nick the winner. Whitney was instantly in tears, a rather startling development for Nick.

"You meanie!" she sobbed. Nick awkwardly took a step back and into a lass, who sighed as she scratched her head.

"Gee, you made her cry again."

"That's... um..."

"Weird, I know, just give her a couple of minutes and she'll be fine. "

Hours passed and Black was still on his perch on top of the department store. With a bored expression he flipped a switchblade open and close. Soon this even bored him so he took another look through the binoculars after coughing up money. He swept the streets to take notice of a familiar person. Nick leaving the gym with his shiny plain badge in hand. More specifically, Nick without Kairi. Perfect. With a sickening grin Black made his way to the elevator.

He was going to make him regret putting down his offer.

Kairi tiredly stumbled into the room late that night. She glanced to her pokegear to see the exact time, 10 : 29 PM in big white text. Predictably, Nick was already asleep, curled up in a tight ball underneath the bed sheets with Piaki curled up on the unoccupied pillow next to his head. The Pikachu looked up at her tiredly. Kairi pet the Pikachu on it's head, in return she nuzzled her face into her hand, she pat her friend on his head before changing into her pajamas.

It was odd, Kairi thought as she laid in her bed, the air seemed so thick and tense...

Well, it was probably nothing. If it really was, Nick would tell her in the morning...

...

..

.

..

...

At the hands of usual habits Kairi was the first to rise once more, when she returned to the room she found Nick awake. He looked rather tired and even more ragged than usual. Kairi smiled.

"Mornin' partner." a heavy silence followed. "Did you have fun yesterday?"

"Oh... yeah. Fun, fun you know."

"That's great!" Kairi smiled. " I'm sorry that I left you alone all day but today I can make up for that. Are you ready to go explore the city again?"

"Yeah... just give me a minute... I need to shower." Kairi nodded, excusing herself and waited down stairs. About twenty minutes later Nick came down the stairs, he didn't look better, but at least a little refreshed. Kairi figured he must have had a bad dream after she fell asleep. She took her friend by the hand with a smile.

"C'mon Nick. I heard there's a bike store in the city. Maybe we can buy some?"

"That sounds like a great idea," after getting directions from the nurse joy the duo made their way around buildings and narrow alleyways to a small building behind the department store. The building was not in the finest of conditions, windows smudged and dirty, a few blue shingles were missing from the roof.

"You would think a bike shop would be more obvious... and in better condition..." the two stepped into the building, the inside of the store was... okay. A few tool boxes strewn about, bikes lining the walls and racks.

"Um, hello?" Kairi called. Not even seconds later there was a sound of someone's head hitting the counter top and a groan. The owner of the voice soon appeared from under the counter, rubbing his head.

"Sorry about that, this is Miracle Cycle's Goldenrod branch. Here at Miracle Cycle, the world is a cycling path!" the man rubbed the back of his neck. "So, have a look around. Holler if you..." he let out a sigh. "Actually... can I ask you two to do something for me...?"

"I guess so mister..."

"The truth is, I'm not getting a whole lot of sales. The location the company chose is pretty terrible, not many trainers know I'm out here and because of that it's rare to get customers. So, I've been thinking, what if I get some trainers to advertise my bikes for me? You two look like a pair of kind, loyal and honest kids... so can I hope on you to do that?"

"How would we advertise the bike although?"

"I'll let you two borrow some and you can ride them around, they have our store name on them too so people will know our names and look us up!"

"Gee, that sound swell! What do you think Nick?" he nodded.

"That sounds like a great idea, we'd be glad to help you sir." The grateful man told them to pick any bike from any section. Kairi, being the simple girl she was, she chose a simple pale blue bike and Nick grabbed the nearest bike next to him, that happened to be a yellow sports bike. Kairi and the man exchanged numbers and the duo left the shop.

Not far off was Simon, he exited the casino, which was open to all ages as long as they had a form of valid ID, with an Abra on his shoulder. He smiled fondly at the PSI pokemon as it perched itself on his shoulder. In the distance, he heard a voice. That was Kairi. He could tell. He knew it and he couldn't deal with this now...

Just walk, he thought to himself, just keep on walking.

Kairi had none of that. She threw herself on her friend, hanging off his arm.

"Oh partner! It's so nice ta see ya again!" he kept his mouth shut. "Aw c'mon Simon! Don't act like that! Ya know ya missed me! We should eat lunch together!" without waiting for a response, Kairi once more dragged Simon off with unnatural strength. Nick sighed, reluctantly following the two to the food court in the department store.

"So, how's ya adventure been goin' Simon?" the boy tapped his hands on the table with irritation. He looked away with a huff.

"Fine."

"Nick has collected three badges so far! I've never seen him battle a gym leader but I know it's real good fights between him and the gym leaders!" Simon looked interested for a moment, he smiled. A smile that warmed Kairi. Simon seemed to catch himself and scowled.

"Yeah! He's really great at battling, and so far his team is looking good!" Simon glanced aside for a moment, to Nick. He squinted his eyes. Was Nick... limping? The brunette returned to the table with a tray of burgers, french fries and sodas for each of the three.

"Nick, did you manage to be a fool and hurt yourself while training or what?" Simon's words were intended to be snide and rude but Kairi could hear that undertone of concern. Nick paused handing out the food. He quickly shook his head.

"No... I was just, walking around the city alone yesterday... I, uh, got into a small fight."

"Nick Sakati in a fight?" Simon sighed. "Now that's a sight I would like to see!"

"No... it was a lame fight... I got stabbed in the leg..." both Kairi and Simon stopped eating to look at Nick with an incredulous look.

"What?! Who attacked ya Nick?! I'll punch them!" Kairi bellowed, grabbing the attention of everyone in the food court. Simon forced Kairi back into her seat.

"Did you at least report the jerk? I am doubtful you instigated a fight."

"I didn't instigate it, believe me... and it was Black, Kairi... he was probably mad that he lost another battle to you in Azalea."

"That jerk!" Kairi shook her fist furiously. "He's got beef with me! He betta bring a fight ta me if hes got problems!" Simon suddenly pulled himself to his feet.

"I'd say this second kidnapping was a delight, but it wasn't, and I have things to attend to." Simon took a couple of steps away before Kairi called out to him.

"Are ya sure ya wanna go with out ya pokemon?" Simon's hands shot to his belt to find the whole belt was missing with his pokemon. He spun around, there Kairi was, seated in that booth seat with a stupid grin on her face.

"Give me those Kairi!"

"No sire!" she huffed, pressing the belt to her chest. "Today I'm takin' Nicky to the Pokeathlon Dome! You're his friend too so ya gonna support him too!" Simon groaned loudly, making an exaggerated expression of pain.

Why must she keep on doing this to him?!


	8. Chapter 8

Let us rewind a couple of days and situate ourselves on a rather luxurious ship making its way to Johto from the region known as Hoenn. The ship was full of many trainers, young, old, experienced and new, and people on vacation.

On the upper floors was a room like no other. The most expensive and highest of quality with the best view was currently in care of a young lady named Gwendolyn Hitachi. Resting in the chair on the balcony was a young woman in a pale pink dress that fit her hourglass body shape well. With a computer in her lap her deep pink eyes scanned the screen. She let out a tiny sigh before closing the laptop. The Porygon and Kirlia at her side glanced up as she ran a hand through her long black hair adorned with red bangs,

"We'll be arriving soon," Gwen rose to her feet and reentered her room. "We need to prepare for docking and I need to dress, Dianna, I you could assist me." The emotion pokemon nodded, glowing faintly, psychic energy grabbed the zipper at the back of Gwen's gown and pulled the zipper from her upper back to her hips. Gwen caught the fabric at the front before she was exposed. The girl's Porygon grabbed a pair of clean clothes, placing them down on the marble sink counter in the bathroom.

The pokemon then got to work organizing the room and their master's belonging as she took a shower, Porygon and Kirlia using electromagnetism and psychic powers to move items while Combusken picked up items with his own talons. When Gwen exited the bathroom she nodded at the cleanliness of the room. The young lady walked to the dresser and mirror, she seated herself and began to run a comb through her wet hair. She pulled her hair into low twin ponytails with red ribbons and put a pair of pinkish pearl earrings into her ears. Gwen took a step back to admire herself in the mirror.

Red and black biker shorts, a pink turtleneck and her family emblem professionally stitched on the back of a white jacket. The young lady smiled. Dianna presented her with her backpack, which she pulled on, and so the trainer left her room to wait on the upper decks of the ship until they arrived at Olivine City's port.

Gwen was one of the firsts to get off the ship due to waiting in the ship's parlor. Kirlia spins beside her as Combusken wheels his master's second bag behind her and Porygon sits on it. The young lady takes a look around the port city before whipping out her foldable bicycle from her trolly bag. She attached the basket to the front of the bike before zipping the trolly bag shut and strapping the bag to the metal cargo rack at the back of the bike.

She returned all of her pokemon to their pokeballs with the exception of Dianna, who climbed into the front basket.

"Okay Dianna, begin sensing." the emotion pokemon raised it's pink horn to the sky and Gwen took off peddling. She had to search everywhere. Not a single rock could be left unchecked. It was here and she needed to find it.

To scan the city top to bottom took her days and Dianna's horn had not shined once. It was clear the target was not here. From her perch on the top floor of the lighthouse she took in the surrounding sights, she could see a tall tower to the north-east and to the south-east was a radio tower. According to her books that would be Ecruteak City's Bell Tower, were legends said a rainbow bird of legends once resided, and Goldenrod City's Radio Tower, that broadcast across both Johto and Kanto, respectively.

She could always as for them for help too... they were new trainers so maybe they were within either of the two cities.

Gwen nodded to herself and entered the elevator with her bicycle. As soon as she exited the building she was gone, biking as fast as she could go. The dual hair girl only stopped once during her trip and that was to go to sleep for the night. The next day she was off once more, bursting through the city limits of Ecruteak. The was awed by the ancient Japanese architecture of the city, not many cities or region had such ancient styles of building and it was quite a sight to see.

Gwen came to a stop at the pokemon center, the only building with a modern style besides the mart and gym, she parked her bike in the racks to the side of the building and entered the pokecenter. She placed down her pokeballs and a sealed envelope. Gwen watched the nurse placed her pokemon in the healing device before opening her envelope. The nurse's eyes quickly ran over the paper, taking in the information before shaking her head.

"I haven't seen them, but," the woman approached the computer, typing at her computer. "According to our logs the two just left Goldenrod City's center today. They should be on the way to the city, if they don't make any stops on the way."

"Would there be any popular destinations along the way a trainer would stop at?"

"The Pokeathlon Dome and the National Park. They're both real popular places for the trainers young and old. Your best bet is the dome although." Gwen nodded.

"Thank you very much," the young lady bowed. She collected what was hers, leaving the center to board her bike and peddled away without asking where was the dome or park was. Well, it wouldn't be that hard would it? Luckily, everything was smooth until she hit the weird tree that...

She would poke at it and it would jiggle and dance. Was this a unique feature to trees of this region? No, that could not be. No other tree acted that way... Dianna began to inspect the tree herself as Gwen took a seat on the grass. The emotion pokemon glanced over the tree with curiosity. She poked it and the tree jiggled. The pokemon let out a thoughtful hum before spinning on the tip of her toes, calling rain down with a rain dance. The tree suddenly began to shake much more furiously than before, revealing it was not a tree but rather a Sudowoodo.

"A pokemon!" Gwen gasped. She reached into her coat pocket and wiped out a pokedex. "Ah ha! A Sudowoodo, the tree pokemon!" she crossed her arms. "But why would the pokemon be in the middle of the path like this...?" a loud, angry snort came from behind the girl. Gwen slowly turned her head. It was a Stantler and it was glaring furiously at the Sudowoodo. With a growl it charged for the tree pokemon, which let out a small sound of fear. Gwen barely had time to roll aide and avoid being trampled.

"Dianna! Stop that pokemon!" Dianna gracefully spun up to the big horn pokemon and hit it with a magical leaf attack. The Stantler's attention moved to the Kirlia. The pokemon snorted once more and charged. Dianna spun out of the way and fired a psychic attack from it's horn. The weaker wild pokemon fell. Gwen sighed. She noticed the Sudowoodo had left in the middle of the fight. She could only figure that the tree pokemon was hiding from the big horn pokemon by acting like a tree, inadvertently causing problems for trainers.

She shook her head, biking off once more.

Gwen looked around with sparkles in her eyes. The Pokeathlon area was quite lovely, the dome itself was a huge building, with flaming torches on it's steel blue roofing. To the east of the dome was a track and field and a juice stand. Gwen bikes past a girl with blond hair clinging to an exasperated raven haired boy. She parked and locked her bike before entering the building.

Several minutes later she stood at the front desk of the dome dressed in new clothes. A light pink, white collared, jersey. A light white shirt was exposed by the open jersey, covering the lower half of her body was a pair of lose pink shorts and her usual sneakers. How did she end up like this? She asked where Nicolas Sakati was, she was informed he was entering the competition for the day and then... it was all a blur...

Well, she was signed up for the competition as well and she was not one to back down. She let out a tiny sigh, pulling her hair into a ponytail, and made her way to the track. She let out her pokemon, in addition to her new partner, Bella the Snubbull, and began to inform them of the current situation. Her eyes remained focused on Bella as she spoke causing her to miss that her Combusken had left her side. The young fowl pokemon approached a brunette contestant in a yellow jersey and shorts, it curiously looked at the bandages wrapped around his left knee and lower leg. An injury from practice perhaps?

He must be a weak human to injure himself. By the time the pokemon was coming in for a closer inspection the boy noticed and jumped back. The boy looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"U-um... shoo?" the Combusken gave him a look, questioning if this kid really told him to shoo like a common stray.

"Chiko!" The starter looked away from the boy and to it's trainer, who was jogging over. Gwen was frowning, with her hands on her hips. "What are you doing over here bothering this young man mister?" the pokemon shrugged. "That will not do Chiko!" she sighed. "Go run laps with the others, you need to warm up too." the pokemon shrugged and did as instructed. Gwen bowed to the boy.

"I'm sorry for bothering you, I'll be on my way now." the boy watched the girl walk off, his face slightly red.

"Wow. She's pretty..."

…

..

.

..

…

"C'mon Simon!" Kairi whined, dragging the raven haired boy into the stands. Simon was honestly surprised she didn't try to carry him off. She had the power, strength and endurance to do so. He sighed, giving up, allowing him to be dragged off. She had his pokemon so it wasn't like he could run off anyway. Might as well get this over with.

"Are you ready ladies and gentlemen?! It's time for the final competition of the day! The speed track! Let us introduce our competitors today! Competitor Number One! It's Nick Sakati of New Bark Town." Nick walked out into the field with Ember, Piaki and Brave following him, he awkwardly waved at the people in the stands. He always wanted to participate in the Pokeathlon but with so many people in the stands he suddenly felt nervous. He took a deep breath as the remaining contestants were introduced.

When contestant four came out he nearly flipped out. It was that girl with two hair colors dressed in pink. He didn't think he would of seen that pretty girl again. The girl seemed to notice his eyes on her and faced him with a smile. The announcer seemed to notice this and focused the camera on both him and the girl.

"Oh, it seems Nicolas has fallen for the foreign beauty of Lilycove City! Competitor number four, Gwendolyn Hitachi, the fair maiden that stings like a Beedrill!" Oh god if he could die he wish he could just drop dead now. This was embarrassing. Gwen didn't think so, she seemed to giggle of the extra attention.

"Today, we'll have three events, the hurdle dash, relay run and disc catch! Extra points will be handed out in the end, what for? Who knows! Just do your best! So who will be the best? Who will be the worst? Everyone get out there and win!"


	9. Chapter 9

"And next up… the prize for effort! The Pokemon that failed the most…" Nick made a face. Why would you even award anyone for failing? That's like spitting in their face. "Nicolas's Brave!"

Oh Arceus. That's just embarrassing.

"With all the bonus points handed out, let's count our totals from today's three events!" The color coordinated scoreboards rose slowly as points were added on to initial scores. The boards would stop three times, once for each event.

In the end Nick sighed. Third place wasn't all that bad for a first try but he did definitely need some practice. Also he needed to focus more. The foreign girl, Gwen, didn't help that... The medal was awarded to the second contestant, confetti was launched and showered the winner. Cheering died out as the athletes left the field for the lockers. Nick took a quick shower and changed back into his usual clothes. Outside of the lockers he found Kairi, looking a bit upset.

"H-hey.. it's nothing to worry about... it's o-"

"I lost Simon... can't believe that!"

Oh. Simon again. Nick sighed. He was worried about Simon as much as Simon's mother was but when it came Kairi it seemed like the only thing on her mind half of the time any more.

"Oh..." he awkwardly rubbed his arm, waiting for her to say something. To acknowledge him. But that never came. He felt so dishearten. As soon as she learned Black jumped him she paid attention but now?

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Gwen smiled, walking up to the duo. Nick jumped, startled by the foreign trainer.

"O-oh, hey..." Gwen reached into her coat pocket and presented the pair with her pokedex.

"I was informed if I came to Johto it would be in my best interests to travel with a boy by the name of Nicolas Sakati and Kairi Miller."

"Who told ya that...?"

"Professor Oak of course," Gwen smiled. "I think it would be beneficial if we traveled together." Kairi shrugged, she saw nothing wrong with the girl. She seemed to be in good shape, thus obviously a good trainer (according to her books at least.) and she was professor recommended and trusted.

"Well, I don't have a problem, what about ya Nick?" he blinks. Now he matters? He sighs, shrugging slightly.

"I... I don't have a problem with it I guess. Professor Oak is a reliable man. He wouldn't hand out something as important as a pokedex to anyone."

"Than it's settled! Ya get to travel with us!"

"Great," Gwen smiled, looking pleased.

"Ah, my dear Suicune, soon! Soon I, the great mystery man Eusine, shall free you and your brethren from your stone prisons!" the tuxedo clad man preached with enthusiasm about how he was going to free the pokemon. Not far off someone eavesdropped. They eyed down to the knife in their hand before glancing back to Eusine with a bored look.

What an idiot... he hated that he had to waste time dealing with him but he could not afford the return of the legendary beast trio. The figure moved, his feet lightly scuffled against the floor and it was enough to alert the tuxedo clad man. He reached for a pokeball but a sharp stab to his wrist stopped him. His assailant moved quick, slitting his throat.

The Suicune enthusiast fell to the ground, making some sort of noise on the floor.

"What a waste of my time."

return to center to reunite, kirlia begins to pick up on the target, head to the brass tower to find black

_Today, at five am, the gym leader of Ecruteak was doing his usual rounds in the burned Brass Tower when a body was found in the basement level of the tower. Despite the damage and mutilation to the body, the body has been identified as Eusine of Celadon City. There's no clear answer who did it, but the body has a 'R' carved into it, a sign of a Team Rocket kill. _

_Has Team Rocket t__ruly returned after all these years or is this just a copycat kill, trying to scare innocent people?_

Kairi turned off the TV. Well, that was a fine and dandy way to start the day... she sighed. The blond rancher looked between the top bunk bed and single bed, both Gwen and Nick were still asleep. She decided it would not hurt to take a small look around the city. Kairi left the room to shower and dress before leaving the center.

She chose to visit the Kimono Dance Theater, it was not far away from the center and after her previous two encounters maybe she should visit them. They seemed to know about her but she knew nothing about them...

She entered the dance studio to be greeted with an... interesting sight. A Rocket grunt was on stage, grabbing at the kimono girl on stage despite her protests. It was an uncomfortable sight for everyone there to witness it. Kairi grew angry, she ran up the stairs, up on stage and clonked the Rocket square in the jaw. The man let go of the red and orange clad kimono girl, who quickly took refuge behind Kairi, to cradle his jaw. He seemed surprised that Kairi could hit that hard. He scowled.

"The hell you think you doing bitch?"

"Ya harassing that poor gal! I ain't gonna stand here and do nothin'!"

"You think you can take me punk?!"

"I've beaten a lot of ya!" Kairi let Apollo take the stage. The man stared at the determined egg pokemon before laughing like a mad man.

"You going to try and fight me with that litt-" he had no change to finish his sentence. Apollo had thrown his self at the man with a headbutt, his spiked head slammed into the man's stomach, knocking the air out of him. The man stumbled back and Kairi jumped forward to knock him square in the face once more. The man was knocked out, laying uselessly on the floor. The crowed, which Kairi noted to be composed of young kids, elderly adults and young ladies, cheered for her.

Kairi turned back to the kimono girl. The young lady looked near in tears but utterly relieved that someone came to her aid.

"That was excellent... every kind and strong... you are very good at raising pokemon too." she giggled to herself. "That person does know what to look for in people..." Kairi raised a brow. "Oh no, oh no, don't mind me. That was just me talking to myself."

"Of you say so..."

Well, she wasn't either of the Kimono girls encountered before but just as strange as them. The young lady excused herself to clean up before continuing her show. Kairi glanced back to the grunt with a sigh. She should probably call the cops on this loser. On her way out an old man handed her an HM 3; Surf as a thank you for saving the poor kimono girl. She gratefully accepted the item with a smiled.

Kairi returned to the pokecenter after reporting and watching the struggling grunt get taken away by the proper authorities. She noted Nick talking to someone with Gwen at his side. The guy he was talking to seemed to be pleased, as she came closer she could hear something like 'you remind me of a friend'. The young man waved goodbye and walked off.

"Gee Nick, what was that about?"

"That guy... he's Bill! The maker of the Pokemon Storage system! A-and he had found an Eevee, it had no trainer or anything and he didn't need it, so I asked for it and he gave it to me!"

"Golly, that's super lucky Nick! Eevees are super rare and expensive to get!"

"I know!" he beamed with joy, a first time in a while. Kairi smiled on the outside but she was fuming. It was all Black's fault Nick was so depressed an upset lately. She was gonna beat that jerk in the face when she got the chance!

"Are ya ready for yer battle today Nick?"

"Ah... after the news report I wanted... to wait a little while. I think the leader should have some time to grieve his friend before being thrust back into battle."

"That's awfully kind of ya Nick." the boy smiled and scratched his neck.

"It's a respectable thing to do... seeing someone you love... dead is painful." Kairi frowned. Simon had once mentioned Ms. Locke wasn't Nick's real mom. His real mother passed away when he was about six or so and he had picked up her maiden name as his last name when she died and his father never returned home. Ms. Locke had decided to take care of him, which was when his and Simon's bond first formed.

Kairi pat her friend on his head with a smiled. The moment came to a sudden halt as Gwen gasped. Her Kirlia had freed itself from it's pokeball and it's pink horn was glowing. Gwen and her emotion pokemon took off running, startled Kairi followed and Nick trailed behind all the way to Brass Tower, otherwise known as Burned Tower

The tower had suffered sever fire damage a hundred and fifty years ago and only the first floor and the basement remained as a result. A gaping hole in the group provided some light if one was to visit the basement down below. Pieces of burned ruble and beams of wood lay strewn about here and there and the floor creaked ever so often.

"Brass Tower...? Why would Gwen come 'ere?"

"I don't know but she had this look on her face..."

"A look?"

"She was... very serious about something..."

"Serious huh... well, I'm gonna 'elp her! We're friends afta all!" Kairi once more rushes off with Nick perusing her. Dianna's glowing horn acted as a beacon for the friends, they rushed to pokemon and trainer to find that they were not alone. Gwen had confronted Black. Kairi forced herself in front o Black while tightly clutching a pokeball. She pointed an angry finger at her rival.

"Black! Ya finally show yer face once more!" he raised a brow.

"You're eager to see me for once. What a surprise..."

"Only cause I'm gonna make ya pay for stabbin' Nicky in the leg! No one hurts ma friends!"

"Stab in the leg? I never-" Black rasied a brow as it took a moment to sink in what he was being accused of now. "Stab in the leg? Really? That's what you-" he was interrupted as Kairi let Apollo fly, once more headbutting the enemy in the stomach. "Oof! What the hell you bitch?! Did you throw a freaking football at me!?"

"Shut ya mouth! It's time to pay!"

"Jesus. Of all the weaklings to get as a rival I get a fucking psycho like you." Black muttered, letting his Houndoom out. The devil dog hissed, crouching down and ready to pounce. The dog did not strike fear into Apollo. The egg pokemon waited for a command, Kairi whipped her arm into the air and Apollo attacked with a yawn that was followed with a headbutt.

"Who the hell said I was ya rival? I don't want any thin' to with ya!"

"Kinda too late for that bitch." Kairi scowled, swapping Apollo for Mona, a Smeargle she acquired on her return trip from Azalea Town. "Houndoom, use that loser pokemon as a chew toy with fire fang!" Kairi drew an X into the air, Mona nodded. Jumping directly into the line of fire of the Houndoom to take the brute of the attack. Black raised a brow for a mere second before it hit him what Kairi had planned. Smeargle were painter pokemon, they could observe any attack and replicate it. "Nice trick Kairi, but it will be a pointless effort! Crunch!" Kairi waved her arm and the Houndoom was smacked with an iron tail before it could ruthlessly bite down on Mona. The dog was downed with a direct attack to it's head. Black begrudgingly returned the pokemon and replaced it with his Breloom.

As the battle waged furry rose once more in Black. Ridiculous tact, ridiculous bitch, ridiculous pokemon. So why the hell was she winning?! _She _was the loser! _She _was the weakling! So why the fuck was _she _winning?!

With his last pokemon down Black snapped. He pulled his switchblade from his jacket pocket and rushed for the girl. Dianna moved without a command, knowing this was a friend of her master that was about to be attacked, and disarmed Black by shooting him with a psychic attack.

"Didja... didja just try to attack me?" Kairi took a step backwards. The floorboards creaked and suddenly gave away under her feet, taking Gwen and Nick with her. The trio let out a yell as the plummeted to the floor below. The redhead scoffed, stowing away his fallen knife.

"What are you doing falling into a hole? Some genius you are! Serves you right!"


	10. Chapter 10

Thankfully no one was injured from the fall. A little sore, but other than that they were fine. Kairi glanced up, staring at the hole in the floor (roof?) that caused them to fall. She scowls at it for a moment before noting the ladder. She's suddenly thankful to know that her 'rival' was not that much of an ass to knock it over, wreck it or steal it somehow. Then again, he probably assumed they all died like the asshole he was. Kairi sighs. She makes her way to Nick as Gwen rises. Nick groans and cradles his head.

"Are ya hurt Nicky?"

"J-just a little... it's just my head although..." Kairi helps her friend to his feet and they make their way to the ladder when Kairi heard something. She pauses her footing to look around.

"What was that?"

"Nick," Gwen moaned catching up to the two. "Did Black really stab you?"

"W-what?" The boy sputtered. "Of course he did!"

"Really?" Gwen cocked a brow. "'Cause he seemed really surprised when he was accused of stabbing you."

"H-h-he stabbed me!" Nick barked.

"Sush ya two." Kairi hissed. "I 'ear somethin'!" The twinkling sound returned and Kairi strained her ears. Her eyes finally located the apparent source, a trio of statues. "Statues...?"

"You heard statues?" Nick looked at his friend oddly. "Kairi, did you bump your head?"

"We all bumped our heads Nick."

"I mean worst than any one else!"

"Sush!" Kairi repeated. She leans Nick against Gwen and makes her way to the center of the room for a better look. Her calloused hand reached out and touches the snout of the beast with a hexagon crest. The surface rippled like pebbles across the water. Kairi's mouth hung agape as the ripples began to glow and reach the other three statues despite the fact they were not touching.

"Um. Kairi, what's going on?"

"I donno..." Oddly, she did not feel afraid. Startled, maybe, but not afraid. The rock suddenly shattered and three beasts stood there. One of a lion like nature, a tiger and one with resemblance of a dog. Each creature let out a roar before departing through the hole in the upper floors, the dog like one lingered to stare at Kairi, who's mouth hung agape, before turned to the sky and letting out a roar that caused the rain to fall. The pokemon jumped away leaving the pre-teens stupefied.

"What just happened"

"I-I don't know..."

"Let's just go to the pokecenter and rest..."

"Alright..."

Nightfall came and in it's wake the rain still fell with ferocity. At this hour the whole city was asleep, except for two figures. Two very familiar figures, Simon and Black.

"The murder... that was your work. Wasn't it? And then you proceeded to frame that grunt, correct?"

"You know me so well Simon." Black laughed. "I mean the murder detail. Yes, that was all me. That idiot was unrelated but became a useful scapegoat. I guess he should fondle girls more often." Simon scowled.

"You asshole."

"Yes, yes, I'm so terrible." he scoffed. "Tell me something I don't know." Black's face soon fell into a frown. "Too bad it wasn't that bitch of a rival. Someone as weak and useless as her should be dead..." Black suddenly flipped his switchblade open and stabbed the blade into Simon's stomach. Nothing vital but still painful. "You'll do in her place though!"

_Kairi... Kairi... wake up dear..._

Sheets pooled around the blond girl's waist as she pulled herself upright. She looked around. Nick was asleep in his bed and after climbing up the bunk bed ladder she found Gwen dead asleep. She curiously tilted her head. Where had that voice come from?

The door suddenly creaked open. Was the voice coming from outside the room? Kairi hobbled into the hall but found no one but the front door of the center open. As far as she knew the center was locked at nights. Maybe she should find Nurse Joy and tell her the doors were open...

_Kairi... come here... come outside..._

Steps came to a halt. Kairi obeyed the voice feeling enticed. The voice continued to whisper to her and she followed the voice, leading her to the base of Burned Tower where she witnessed Black shove Simon onto his back, climb onto him with a twisted look and wrapped his hands around the neck of her dear friend.

Without even thinking of the consequences Kairi swung her arm across the horizon. The collective puddle water came together, creating a whip of water and whipped Black across his face. Startled, he let go of Simon and took a hobbled back.

He recognized that kind of assault. He knew what hit him the only problem was that it shouldn't even be possible. He was taken back as the attacker came running up. Kairi. It was Kairi of all people. He felt conflicted, angry, annoyed and yet smug.

"I guess I made the right choice when I claimed you as my rival. A bitch you maybe, but you're amazing." With a laugh Black ran off into the shadows. Kairi paid him no heed. She tried to shake her friend, begging him to wake up. Her hand moved to his stomach when she noted a dark patch on the wet jacket. To her horror she found blood. She began to panic. What was she to do now. Where was the doctor. Who was she to go to at this hour?!

"Is someone out here?" a light suddenly shined on her and Simon. Wincing at the sudden light she looked to the face of her apparent savior. It was a monk. He knelled down to Simon and frowned.

"He is bleeding a lot... What happened to him?"

"I-I don't know...! I just heard a voice a-a-and I followed it!" The monk could see this girl was quite hysterical and not the cause of the boy's injuries. He held a hand up to silence her. "C-can ya 'elp 'em?"

"Yes, please, bring him into our shrine. We will do everything we can to help your friend... Once he's better and you calm down you can explain what happened." Kairi smiled gratefully. She lifted Simon onto her back and followed the monk.

Pidgeies chirped outside his window for the rainfall has finally passed over the night. Simon grumbled to himself and he rolled in the futon laid out on the tatami flooring. His eyes suddenly snapped open. Futon? Tatami flooring?

Simon quickly sat up to make his escape when he noticed what he was wearing. They looked like the robes of the sages he saw in town. A light white robe under a heavy navy blue with a sash knotted around his waist, loosely no less. A throbbing pain in his side caused the reels in his mind reminded him why he was in pain. Yes. He tried to confront that... person when he attacked him. Why did he stop though...?

As Simon pondered the question Kairi entered the room dressed in red hakama and a white haori, under her arm was Simon's clothes all cleaned and and stitched up. The young lady smiled.

"Good morning Simon." Simon went stiff for a second before glaring at the girl.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I stayed the night with the monks... after... you know, you were hurt." Simon sighed. Why the hell was she so reckless to jump into a fight with that asshole? He shook his head, grabbing his clothes as hr climbed to his feet. Kairi sighed, seeing her friend was ready to leave. "Wait... Simon, why would Black hurt ya? Is it 'cause yer my friend?" Kairi sighed. "That might be it... Nicky said he stabbed 'em too... I can't believe such a jerk claims to be my rival!" Simon was suddenly swamped with horror as the pieces came together. Rival. _He _was her self proclaimed rival_. _No_. _Not him. Anyone but him.

"Stay away from him."

"What?"

"Black! Stay away from him!" Kairi furrowed her brows. She got some genuine concern out of her friend but over Black of all things?

"It's not like I'm followin' him Simon. That creep is followin' me! Besides I'm perfectly fine. I got nothin' to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about?! That asshole is a murderer and a psychotic sociopath stabbing con-artist!"

"Oh c'mon Simon! I'm fine!" Simon was shaking. Was it with anger? Fury? Fear? No one could tell.

"Go home Kairi!" he almost regretted those words as soon as they came out of his mouth.

"What...?" Kairi's face held not emotion. It was simply blank, masking her feelings. Sadly, her voice did not mask how she feel. It said everything. Heartbroken and distressed.

"You... you're not... a good trainer. You belong on your stupid farm! You never should of left it in the fi-!" he never finished that phrase. Kairi struck him in the face with enough force that he stumbled back. He winced. He was expecting a hit, not one backed with that much force.

"Don't say that Simon...! Don't ever say that! There's nothin' for me on that ranch! I don't wanna to stay there, I don't wanna work there till I die! I want to see the world! You know that..." she fell to her knees, tears welding up in her eyes. "You know that..."

"No. You don't want to see the world. You'd never be able handle it." he spoke softly. His instincts screamed to comfort her but he bit his lip and climbed to his feet. He briskly brushed past her, as he opened the door to the room he glanced back once more. "Return to the farm Kairi. Life is better for you there then it is out here. Our friendship was a mistake. It was a mistake to encourage to you leave home... everything was."

"E...everything?"

"Everything." he repeated. "It's over Kairi. You are better fit in a life of obscurity," he clenched the door frame slightly and muttered to himself. "You'll be safer there..." with that said the door closed with a soft noise. Kairi remained on the floor, mind racing over everything Simon said to her. That wasn't her friend. That wasn't the Simon she wanted to find. That...

Simon couldn't of become that heartless. It was impossible.


	11. Chapter 11

Simon left Ecruteak a few days back but Kairi was still in a state of sadness because of his words. Neither Gwen or Nick could pry an answer or reason from her which in return bothered the two, more Nick than Gwen.

After three days Kairi finally seemed better, she wasn't as chipper as usual but it was an improvement than before.

"Simon said WHAT?!" Nick demanded

"Ta... go back ta the ranch..." Kairi numbly repeated. "I still can't believe he said that..."

"I can't believe that! That's not Simon!" Nick exclaimed. "An evil clone! That's what it must be!"

"Well, people do change..." Gwen sighed, shrugging her shoulders. She wasn't good in situations like this being home schooled and all, thus having a lack of friends. She felt bad for Kairi but that was about it. She had no idea who Simon even was, all she could gather was that he was an acquaintance with the two but he suddenly became a jerk?

"I guess." Kairi breathed. "C'mon... Nick, ya got a battle, right?"

"A battle?" he blinked.

"At the gym. With Morty, right?"

"Oh, no... I actually battled him yesterday..."

"Really...?" Kairi seemed disappointed. "I never got a chance to see ya in action..."

"You can watch me fight at the next gym!" he quickly piped up.

"Really?"

"Yeah! But you need to promise to be there!"

"'Course! I'll be there for sure!" Nick smiled.

"Then, let's get going! The next leader wont come to me!" Kairi giggled, letting her friend take the lead. Kairi noticed Nick limp and frown. She never did get to punch Black in the face... the stupid floor caved in and they all fell...

"Does ya leg still hurt?"

"A little..."

"Maybe you should get a docta to look at it?"

"I already have, I just... need some time... you know, to heal."

"Don't over work yaself then!"

"Right. I don't need you to hound me over that..."

"Only outta love!"

"Oh my god. You again." Black scoffed. "What are you doing here."

"Goin ta the city. Why are ya here? Stealin' more things?"

"Stealing? What, is this guy a thief?"

"Yeah."

"He lit the professor's lab on fire."

"How cruel!"

"I'm right here you know."

"Just get outta our way!"

"I'm more than happy to comply. Olivine City is a piece of shit, there's nothing in that city. The Gym Leader even abandoned her post to take care of some shitty sick pokemon in the lighthouse. If it's sick and useless it should just die! Why bother with i-" And once more Black was punched square in his nose. "Jesus fucking CHRIST. What is wrong with you?!" Kairi just growled.

Black made a run for it but Kairi was close on his heels. Goddamn. She was so pissed off right now. What did he do this time? He ran over a list of things he did within the last twenty four hours but nothing special came to his mind. Clearly she was a crazy bitch.

He jumped the fence into some farm. Moo Moo Farm or something dumb like that. All these farms had shitty names. The two made tracks allover the grazing fields until Black ducked behind the house on the property. By the time Kairi rounded it she could not find him, instead she found the owner of the farm.

"Aieeee!"

"You were chasin' some boy in my property?!"

"Yes sir, he's a nasty boy! He attacked ma friends! I had him until he ran behind the house, he was gone!" the farm owner rushed out the house with a shotgun in hand. The wife laughed lightly.

"I'm sorry about my husband, he's mighty worried about us all now. Many of our Miltanks have gotten sick recently and profits have taken a dive. He must of thought that boy ducked into our barns."

"I see! That would be bad, Black would scare 'em poor Miltanks and they would get sicker..." Kairi reached into her bag and pulled out her satchel of berries. Luckily they were unharmed... she poured the berries onto the table top and handed all the Oran and Sitrus berries she had. "Please take these ma'am, these berries will fix ya Miltanks up in no time!"

"Thank ya for yer kindness Kairi. Please take care..." the woman glanced over, she stared at the Houndoom on the floor, curled up. "Kairi, wait." the blond blinked. Glancing back she watched the woman nudge the dog like pokemon awake. "Take Boomer with ya." the pokemon looked confused. "He's a good boy but he's gettin' old, we want him ta take one last run. Do you think you can do that for him?"

"...Yeah... I can do that." the dog collected its pokeball and walked to Kairi's side. The woman gave the Boomer one last pet before he exited the house and spat his pokeball up at her feet. Kairi picked up the saliva covered ball with no complaints and cleaned it with her skirt. "Alright, I donno much about ya so ya gonna 'aveta help me out buddy. I'll do all I can to help ya." the pokemon barked. Kairi smiled, petting the pokemon on his head.

"Let's get going buddy,"

"Linda darling, I'm home!" Black grinned on making his grand entrance into the girl's room. Young Linda Banks perked up. The blind girl climbed off her bed and rushed to Black with ease, knowing the lay out of her room by heart now. The redhead grinned and pulled her into his arms. "Oh Linda, it's been so long since I've seen you!"

"Yes, it's been quite a while." she replied missing the tease in Black's words. Black laughed, cupping her hand and placing the cheaply purchased keychain in her hand. Thrilled with a gift Linda traced a finger over the small keychain, trying to get an idea of what Black had given her. "Ah... it's so small and cute. Thank you Black."

"It was no problem, the best for you my dear!" Black casually lead himself to Linda's bed and threw himself onto it. "So tell me, how have things been going for you since I left?"

"Really good!" Linda smiled. "The doctors said I should start getting results soon."

"And you shall Linda, for I, the glorious Black, have found what we need to perform the final exam."

"Really?" Linda gasped.

"Indeed I have, a rare healing pokemon! There's only one problem..." Black sighed.

"A problem...?"

"It wants you to battle it!"

"Really?"

"They say the bond of trainer and pokemon can be measured in battle, the pokemon thinks that will prove if your a good or bad person," he laughed. "Silly isn't it?" Linda shook her head.

"No, no, that makes perfect sense! How smart!" Black's brows furrowed and lips tightened into a frown at her response. She was no better than Kairi.

"Oh Black! Where are you my precious little boy?"

"Oh, that's Mrs. Ariana..."

"I see, well, mother is calling me, I must go Linda. Do take care..."

"You're not going away again are you?"

"Sad but I must, we members of the Red Ribbon Committee are always hard at work helping others."

"Aw, you're so sweet Black." with a smug smirk he flicked back his long red bangs.

"You know me too well Linda," the young man waltzed out the the room, calling adieu on his exit and closed the door behind him. He walked down the halls and presented himself to his mother with a bow. The woman was dressed in white and had medium length red hair, her lipstick red lips opened letting out a line of questions. With a laugh he answered them all with the answers she desired, in the end she hugged him, remarking he was just like his father. He simply laughed and replied with an 'I know.'


End file.
